Johannesburg — ALMOST 50% of those employed in SA's arts and culture sector are younger than 35 and the sector has the potential to help solve SA's massive youth unemployment problem, says independent creative industry specialist Avril Joffe.

Globally the "creative economy", the commercial exploitation of products with their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent, is becoming increasingly important as a new generator of jobs, wealth and culture.

The 2008 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimated cultural and creative trade represented 3,4% of total world trade and put the sector's growth rate at 8,7%. "It's one of the fastest-growing sectors in developed countries. We believe we always follow them," says Ms Joffe, who has in the past advised the government on the creative economy.

But in SA, little public money is spent on developing arts and culture - the Department of Arts and Culture had R3,4bn to spend in 2009-10. This is a pity, as 47% of the jobs in the creative economy are taken by people under 35, something to take note of in a country plagued by massive youth unemployment. It is estimated 2,8-million of SA's youth are not employed or in education or training facilities.

"SA's arts sector is youthful, energetic and vibrant, and is easily accessed without large amounts of start-up capital. We should be offering (the sector) a lot more, it could generate income and jobs ," Ms Joffe says. "It has grown on its own, without support. That is its evidence."

Much more needs to be done, on almost every level, starting with school education and ending with smart incentives for both consumption and corporate spending on the arts, says the Johannesburg director for the Visual Arts Network of SA, Joseph Gaylard.

Less than 2% of SA's matric pupils last year took visual art as a subject, and 70% of those who did were in schools in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, he says.

In 2006 there were 1600 undergraduate degree students studying in the visual arts, with a 22% completion rate - higher than the general completion rate for the humanities. Even in Gauteng only 163, or 6,5%, of the 2500 public schools offer any of the arts, Ms Joffe says. "We're not even offering exposure to the arts to children. They don't even know if they'd like it," she says.

Exposing children to arts education is a deeply gratifying experience, says Anelle Liebenberg, principal of a school arts centre in Kimberley. As part of the Northern Cape's education department, the centre teaches art as a matric subject to children from about 12 schools in the region, from formerly Model C to disadvantaged schools.

"It's incredible to witness the development from Grade 10 to 12. They come in barely able to draw a stick figure and they end up producing work that is gaspingly fantastic. They surprise themselves," she says.

The creative economy, says Ms Joffe, does not need a lot of government support. It just needs the government to pay attention, for example by demanding, and paying for, local content on state-funded TV and radio. "It stimulates the industry. There is a relationship. Artists have to work with the rest of the distribution chain, and the distribution chain needs the artists. A little bit of regulation helps."

This chain includes people working in museums, libraries, the media, the printing and publishing sectors and industries like advertising and architecture.

Mapping studies show 55% of creative occupations are "located" in other industries, and research by the UK's National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts shows companies that spend double the average amount on "creative inputs" are 25% more likely to produce product innovations.

"You're dead right that the creative arts are becoming an economically viable option," says Aidan Smith, deputy headmaster of St Andrew's College in Grahamstown. Even those who do not move into artistic careers can benefit from school-level experience in the arts, he says.